Among the things I miss in Japan is a nice bit of sizzling sausage. Fortunately in Tokyo there is no shortage of Oktoberfests, often in months outside of the traditional Oktoberfest month of September such as May. Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Oktoberfest currently being held at Tokyo Midtown (details here, in Japanese only) in the company of some friends who shall remain anonymous for my own personal safety. To my delight there was not only sausage, but Thueringer Bratwurst, of which many have helped me while away tedious passages of time waiting for a train on a cold winter station platform in Berlin.

It tasted almost as good as the German original, if the German original was slightly watery and underspiced. Still there was always the beer, a bargain at 1500 yen per half-litre, which helped numb the impact of the inevitable Bavarian-style band.

Other visitors were evidently not so lucky and found themselves performing a strange half-crazed dance.

some evidently under the control of traditional Bavarian-style wizard hats.

Daily, 4pm - 10pm on weekdays and 11am - 10pm on weekends, until Sunday 13th September. Located in the park behind the Midtown complex.

...on the cover of this map of Japan's former capital city.

... but if you are, don't worry: Sanity Soap is provided for all your mental health needs.

(Seen in the gentlemen's facilities in a rather grotty izakaya near Shinagawa)

Parking in Tokyo is a perennial problem due to the city's notorious lack of space, which calls for all sorts of creative solutions. Not even the humble bicycle is excepted from this quandary, and many places are now adopting a clever mathematical algorithm recently developed at the renowned University of Charinko which enables easy insertion and retrieval of the maximum amount of bikes in the minimum amount of space.

So, I was sauntering home this evening along Mejiro-dori in the company of an umbrella, as is my wont during approaching typhoons, when I came across what my urbane, sophisticated self initially assumed to be some kind of clever arty-farty type of installation skilfully combining two of the fundamental elements, light and liquid.

However my more prosaic, cynical self was able to remind me that I was on Mejiro-dori, home to the famous Leaning Tower of Mejiro, and that the substantial volumes of water which appeared to be passing through flourescent strip lights were in fact substantial volumes of water passing through flourescent strip lights and I hastily performed maneuvers to prevent myself becoming a live blogger of an entirely different sort.

In other news, there was some sort of election thingy today and it appears that for a change, a completely other bunch of suits has got in, so if you have any envelopes stuffed with large-denomination notes awaiting delivery, it might be an idea to look into rewriting the address.

I'm not normally a fan of random graffiti,but felt unable to resist taking a picture of this one on Yamate-Dori near Hatsudai.

"The Japan Meteorological Agency said an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 shook the Japanese capital of Tokyo and surrounding areas today". "No casualties were immediately reported, according to media reports". "It was felt throughout northern and central Japan, but there have been no immediate reports of damage or injuries". "In 1995, a magnitude-7.2 quake in the western port city of Kobe killed 6,400 people".

Umm, that would be the earthquake I totally failed to notice? I believe I was on an underground train at the time. Coming home to find such dramatic reports as above speckling the international media I was somewhat bemused and made a hasty check out of the window to see if I'd missed any scenes of major destruction. Tokyo, I can assure you, is still standing. This, dear drama queens of the international headline writing community, is because the dramatic-sounding magnitude 6.9 quake took place quite a way out to and under the sea, and might have caused death and mayhem in Fishopolis but only registered as a 4 on the Japanese "How strong did that feel?" scale, which translates into "strong enough to cause anyone who does feel it to say 'Oooh! Did you feel that one?' and very instable objects to possibly fall down". The only report of material casualties I have personally heard is of a toothbrush which tipped over, although it sustained no lasting damage.

As the weekend draws near, it's a certain bet you can find ThePenguin down in the mosh pit of one of Tokyo's many "live house" locations showing the locals what he's made of.

Last night it was the turn of a new location, "Fever Popo" next to Setagaya's Shin-Daita station (one stop from Shimo Kitazawa) to see ThePenguin strut his moves ^[*]. On the playlist were (apart from some guys I missed due to being fashionably late) were:

Four Minutes til Midnight,

Tance Boy (箪笥ボーイ, actually three girls and one boy), and of course

Sunset Drive.

A fine time was had by all, and though I am of course a Sunset Drive groupie, I was quite taken by Tance Boy, who successfully combine hard(ish) rock and unpretentious fun.

^[*] To and from the bar for purposes of purchasing beer.